Industry news

The Dismissals and Appeals Committee of Suffolk County Council has concluded its investigation into the ‘whistleblowing’ allegations made against Chief Executive, Andrea Hill.

The statement from the Committee states: “Bullying and harassment allegations were robustly investigated by an independent firm of solicitors. Although it remains a concern that such a perception existed, the Committee is satisfied that there was no evidence to support those claims or that she was responsible for the death of David White (former Head of Legal Services). The Committee wants to reassure staff that all allegations are treated extremely seriously.

“The Committee also received a report into Mrs Hill’s expense claims during her tenure as Chief Executive. It has concluded that whilst there were undoubtedly claims which, in the current climate, might not represent best use of public money, the Committee accepted that there was no dishonesty in the claims made.

“Following a lengthy discussion last Friday, and negotiations between representatives of both parties over the weekend, the county council can now confirm that Mrs Hill will be leaving her post with immediate effect.

“There has been significant media attention attached to Mrs Hill which has become a distraction and both parties accept that with new political leadership of Suffolk County Council in place, it is better to allow the organisation to move forward with new managerial leadership.

“The county council would like to thank Mrs Hill for all she has done over the past three years and wish her well for her future.

“The total value of compensation to be paid to Mrs Hill is £218,592. This figure includes her contractual notice period.”

Serco Group plc, the international services company, has announced the award of a new contract with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to provide logistics and base support services in the Middle East.

The two-year contract is valued at around A$50m and has two one-year extension options. Under the contract, Serco will deliver fully integrated support for ADF bases to ensure the provision of high-quality services in areas such as maintenance and ground refuelling, together with healthcare, accommodation and other support functions. The services will be implemented in a staged approach, with all services fully operational by the end of September 2011.

Chris Hyman, Chief Executive of Serco Group plc, said: "We are delighted to have been chosen to provide these vital services. Our comprehensive and fully integrated solution will support the Australian Defence Force by delivering seamless, efficient and high quality services, drawing on our well-established capabilities in the Middle East and our 15-year experience of working closely with the Australian military."

DNV has acquired Synergi Solutions and enlarges its present software portfolio extensively together with 30 new employees. “We are now able to provide the most complete set of risk based software for operational integrity management and asset integrity to the energy, maritime and healthcare industries,” says Are Føllesdal Tjønn, managing director at DNV’s software house.

Being a leading provider of asset integrity software for the energy and maritime industries, DNV is now extending its portfolio to include risk based software for operational risk management. Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) is growing increasingly complex in many industries, and recognised systems for managing these risks are vital. DNV now looks forward to serving its global customers with the most complete interface for asset and QHSE integrity management systems.

Based in Stavanger, Norway, Synergi Solutions’ software is available in 20 languages and used in 150 countries by 500 000 users. Existing Synergi customers, as well as new customers, will benefit from DNV’s global presence and close relationship with companies in the energy, maritime and health industries.

Through the acquisition, 30 new employees will be joining DNV’s software house. “Both support and sales activities will be managed

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service and Wiltshire Police have joined forces by sharing a communications control system.

APD Communications will provide its ‘hosted’ CORTEX Software Integrated Communications Control System (SICCS) service. The joint agreement will help both organisations to meet budget cuts and share services.

In January, a Government consultation into the scrapping of the FiReControl project, urged emergency services to consider outsourcing or sharing control rooms.

The U.K. Home Office will set up a company to manage the different computer systems of the country’s police forces, in an effort to save officers time and the government money.

“The way we do things now is confused, fragmented and expensive,” Home Secretary Theresa May said in a speech to senior police officers today in Harrogate, northern England. “We know, for example, that one supplier now has over 1,500 contracts across all the forces. This would simply never happen in the commercial world. Across the police service there are around 5,000 staff, working on over 2,000 ICT systems, across 100 data centers.”

Three firms have been selected to provide telephony services within the Government Procurement Service Managed Telecommunications Convergence Framework (MTCF).

Siemens Enterprise Communications, Global Crossing (UK) Telecommunications Limited and Virgin Media Business will supply the framework, which will replace the current Managed Telecommunications Services (MTS). It will allow organisations to procure services in support of the Public Services Network (PSN) and managed telephony, conferencing and data networking solutions

The MTCF will facilitate the delivery of managed telephony and data network services and enable the public sector to benefit from access to a new portfolio of hosted IP telephony, unified communications and video conferencing services. All services delivered within the framework will either be PSN (Public Service Network)-certified or provide transition to PSN-certified services, if required.

Michael Bowyer, director of Public Sector strategy, Siemens Enterprise Communications commented: “Siemens Enterprise Communications, supported by BT, is dedicated to delivering both traditional and next generation communication services that will provide efficient and scalable solutions, as well as enabling best practice working methods throughout the public sector. Being awarded this framework is a central part of our drive towards the successful development of the PSN.”

The Capita Group Plc has announced that it has acquired Ventura, a customer contact specialist for a cash consideration of £65 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

Ventura, the trading name of Club 24 Ltd, is the third party customer services management arm of Next plc and manages more than 50 million customer contacts each year for a range of additional private and public sector clients. Ventura is particularly strong in the private sector with clients including a number of leading telecoms, utilities and retail companies, such as O2, Orange, British Gas and BMI.

Ventura made a pro forma operating profit for its financial year to 31 January 2011 of £8 million on turnover of £156 million.

The acquisition will increase Capita's capacity for customer management services, providing additional front office services and flexible capacity for existing Group clients and the opportunity to provide entura's client base with access to Capita's wider service offering.

The Irish government plans to set up a cross-government implementation group on cloud computing. This group will support the implementation of the Programme for Government commitment on cloud computing. A recent report commission by Microsoft found that the cloud computing market in Ireland could be worth EUR 9.5 billion and employ 8,600 people by 2014.

The proposed Implementation Group will include representatives of relevant Departments as well as the Data Protection Commissioner, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. The first meeting is proposed for later in July. The proposals were welcomed by ICT Ireland, IBEC group that represents the high-tech sector. ICT Ireland director Paul Sweetman said that for Ireland to become a world leader in cloud technology, it was important that the government took a lead as a user of cloud computing.

buyingTeam, Europe’s largest procurement outsourcing specialist, announces it has signed a long-term procurement outsourcing contract with global energy provider BG Group.

This new relationship marks the beginning of buyingTeam managing BG’s indirect expenditure in the UK with potential roll-out on a global basis during the lifetime of the contract.

BG Group has engaged buyingTeam to assist in evolving its procurement approach and embedding a global indirect procurement strategy. buyingTeam will provide BG Group with a full suite of procurement services, including, spend and market analysis, strategic and tactical sourcing, together with associated contract and stakeholder management.

The role of procurement as a key management discipline continues to grow and is fast becoming a central part of executive decision making. Leading companies increasingly value procurement’s ability to go beyond its traditional focus on a client’s supply base and positively influence internal attitudes towards purchasing and apply greater commercial emphasis on its working practices more generally. This change in approach is core to buyingTeam’s model.

Commenting on the contract, buyingTeam CEO Matthew Eatough, said:

“The signing of this multi-year contract with such a successful and internationally renowned company is a powerful endorsement of the substantial benefits that the buyingTeam approach brings to our clients. It also shows how the procurement function has evolved from simple cost-cutting into an integral management discipline.

“We will be working with them to identify where significant value can be unlocked to deliver ongoing future benefits to the BG Group’s operations. We believe that our shared services model provides us with the strength and depth needed to grow with international organisations.”

The company, whose CEO is from Burnley, has calculated that, with accommodation rental comparable between the two locations, the Lancashire town comes out on top. As a result, New Call Telecom are switching their operations back to the UK and are expected to begin recruitment this week.

Chief Nigel Eastwood said: "India isn't that cheap any more. As call centres have grown, real estate prices have gone up massively, while salaries have also crept up."

Call handling times in India are on average 25 per cent longer than in Britain, he added.

Burnley staff will be on the minimum wage but it will provide a huge boost to a high unemployment area.